A wonderful volunteer opportunity

Please read and share with anyone else who might consider helping us with this project to temporarily foster cats that are currently on "death row" at the Baltimore County Animal Control.

Every year, 4 million cats and dogs die in our country’s animal shelters.Generally, each local government establishes an open admission shelter which cannot turn animals away. These shelters then euthanize animals when they do not have the space to house them. Euthanizing for space occurs in the vast majority of open admission shelters in the country.

Baltimore County Animal Control (BCAC) is the open admission shelter in this county. Each year, BCAC euthanizes most of the cats and dogs that enter their shelter. In FY 2012, they euthanized 63 percent of the animals.

AAHA ( The Adopt A Homeless Animal Rescue) has recently implemented a cat adoption program. Our mission is to save friendly, adoptable cats at BCAC who are at risk of being euthanized for space. To accomplish this, we need volunteers who are willing to foster cats so that we can take them off of "death row". We will then place the cats up for adoption at the Pet Valu store in Owings Mills, and will advertise them on Petfinder.

We'd like fosters to be able to commit to holding the cat(s) for at least a certain time period. It can short (a week) or long (six months, if necessary), as they choose. But unless there are extenuating circumstances, they should hold the cat at least through their commitment. This is particularly important for moms and kittens. The kittens only need to be held until they are of age to spay/neuter (which could be done as early as 10 or 12 weeks old). Please let me know if you have any interest in helping, or know someone that may be interested, and I can put them in contact with Ron Lambert, the gentleman in charge.

Below are some specifics for those possibly interested.

Ron Lambert, the gentleman spearheading the operation, gave me the following list of what he's looking for in a foster (see below)

o They should have a car, and be able to transport the cat to the vet if necessary. (They will not have to pay for the vet visit, but they need to be able to get them there.) Also, it would help if they could pick up the cat(s) at BCAC when we pull them. BCAC is open most days during business hours, so that may be a conflict for some people. But they do have evening hours on Wednesday and they are open Saturday.

o I would prefer that they have some experience with cats. If they are willing to foster moms and neonatal kittens (less than 8 weeks old), they should either have experience with neonatals or be willing to learn. Kittens can be tricky, so they will need to monitor them closely to make sure they're getting enough nourishment from mom. Also, they should understand that sometimes kittens die, even if they are doing the right things, so they should not feel guilty about it.

o If they have other pets, they should have a separate room where they can keep the cat(s). For moms and kittens, a cage is okay but they must be in a room that is closed off from the rest of the household pets.

o I'd like fosters to be able to commit to holding the cat(s) for at least a certain time period. It can short (a week) or long (six months, if necessary), as they choose. But unless there are extenuating circumstances, they should hold the cat at least through their commitment. This is particularly important for moms and kittens. The kittens only need to be held until they are of age to spay/neuter (which could be done as early as 10 or 12 weeks old).

Let me know if you have any interest, or know someone that may be interested, and I can put them in contact with Ron Lambert, the gentleman in charge of the project. Thanks, Mark